Brain's Frontal Lobes Electrical Activity May Be Affected by COVID-19
Gotcha! Let's dive into the world of COVID-19 and the brain. Here's a lowdown on what we've discovered so far.
A whopping 15-25% of patients with severe COVID-19 experience neurological symptoms, ranging from headaches to seizures and strokes. If you're experiencing such symptoms, your doc might refer you for an EEG test - yeah, that electric brain test with those sticky electrodes on your scalp.
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed EEG results from 617 patients across 84 studies. They found that the most common findings were slow brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges.
Now, here's something interesting. About a third of the abnormal findings were in the frontal lobes of the brain. That's like the control room, right next to the entry point of the virus - the nose.
"It's like the virus has a VIP pass to the frontal lobe," says Dr. Zulfi Haneef, assistant professor of neurology/neurophysiology at Baylor. But it's not just the virus causing the damage. Inflammation, low oxygen levels, sticky blood, and other systemic effects of the infection could also play a role.
The study also showed "diffuse slowing" in the background electrical activity of the whole brain in nearly 70% of patients - yikes!
Now, remember the term "brain fog" we've heard from people recovering from COVID-19? It seems to be a long-term issue. A recent study found that individuals who had COVID performed less well on an online cognitive test compared to those who didn't believe they had the virus. The authors suggested that the infection may have aged people cognitively by around a decade.
But, y'know, this research doesn't prove that the infection caused long-term cognitive decline. It does, however, highlight concerns about long-term effects on the brain. And with EEG abnormalities linked to the neurological symptoms of COVID-19, these concerns are valid.
"People think they'll get the illness, get better, and everything will go back to normal," says Dr. Haneef. "But these findings tell us there might be long-term issues, which is something we've suspected, and now we're finding more evidence to back that up."
On a positive note, 56.8% of patients showed improvements in follow-up EEG tests. But there are limitations to this research, such as lack of access to individual study data, potential underreporting of normal EEGs, and the use of anti-seizure medications obscuring signs of seizures in EEG traces.
So, here's to more research on those COVID-19-induced brain zaps! Keep your brains protected and stay safe, folks!
In the ongoing study of COVID-19's effects on the brain, it has been observed that about 15-25% of severe COVID-19 patients experience seizures and other neurological symptoms, including slow brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges, often found in the frontal lobes. Moreover, after recovering from COVID-19, some patients may experience cognitive decline, as indicated by a recent study that showed individuals who had COVID-19 performed less well on an online cognitive test. These findings reinforce concerns about long-term brain health consequences of the virus.
